“There is a lighthouse just out of sight toward the right, there!” he shouted back. Purdue seemed extremely interested in the lighthouse for some reason and Sam climbed up to join him atop the cockpit’s roof railing.
“There! You can just see the tip over the rocks, see that?” Sam expounded.
“Ah, yes, there it is,” Purdue said.
“What’s the big deal?” Nina asked from below, looking up at them with her hand shielding her eyes from the sun. “It cannot be a grave, and we are looking for a grave, right?”
“I thought so too, but now I see what the inscription referred to as the white eye. It sounds much like a light beam, doesn’t it? And the grave of Odin — the god with one eye missing — could refer to the one eye of the lighthouse that sees far and wide,” Purdue explained.
Sam and Nina looked at each other. Simultaneously they conceded that Purdue’s theory made a lot of sense.
“I would never have thought of that,” Sam said. “But now that you mention it, it sounds almost definite. How does that tie in with Nina’s Nazi trains though?”
“It doesn’t. But it doesn’t mean both are not correct. My idea might perhaps point us to hers, which is what I think Josef was trying to mark,” Purdue shrugged with a smile beaming with exhilaration. “We are getting closer to that iron horse, kiddos.”
The boat moored in the manmade inlet, allowing its passengers to disembark while it bobbed peacefully on the water like the small specks of other craft on the Gulf of Finland.
“The lighthouse looks like Beetlejuice lives in it,” Nina remarked, evoking a fit of crude laughter from Sam, imitating the character she spoke of.
“It was built after the war, after the Soviet soldiers destroyed the previous one when they evacuated the island,” Purdue lectured.
“Hey, how do you know that? I am the history buff and I did not know that,” Nina whined in jest, but something inside her felt off-kilter, and she could not quite put her finger on it. For a second she thought it was the place, because she felt fine when she stepped onto the island. Now a dreadful feeling took her, portending something bad. After Nina considered what she had been through of late, she blamed the nightmares for her sudden depression. And that was not something she was prepared to share either.
Sam turned her around to look back at the boat. The skipper stood on the deck, having a cigarette. “That’s how he knows — Encyclopedia Finlandia.”
“Thanks, Sam,” Purdue sighed in defeat and dropped his eyes awkwardly. “Shall we get on with it?”
With a lot of jumping and some navigation through puddles in the rocky terrain, they made their way to the tall, lonely lighthouse. Black-and-white horizontal stripes decorated the exterior, like an old prison jumpsuit. A square, concrete building served as the base of the lighthouse, and a decorated niche housed the small access door. Up to where the structure narrowed toward the top, thick and hazed glass spanned the circumference of the tower where the light used to be allowed through at night.
“There, up at the top. Let’s go,” Purdue said enthusiastically, trying the black steel door to gain access to the winding staircase.
“Are we even allowed in there?” Nina asked, trailing Sam and Purdue.
“Probably not,” Sam smiled as Purdue eagerly pried open the door, checking the vicinity for witnesses. This time of year was quiet for tourists and visitors to come, which was a bonus for intruders like Sam and Purdue. Nina was opposed to illegally entering a landmark like this, but she really had no choice in accompanying them. It was far more perilous for her to stay outside alone.
Up the black stairs they raced as quietly as they could. The ascent took a lot more effort than they had initially thought. Narrow steps slowed them and there were plenty to climb. Inside, the lighthouse smelled of lead paint, rust, sea spray, and diesel. On the staircase, the circular motion to the right all the way up made Nina dizzy. Once again the awful misery gripped her, but she distracted herself from it by listening to Purdue and Sam whispering athletic challenges to each other.
“Hurry, guys. I just need to get to the top. This winding madness is making me feel sick,” Nina whispered, hastening up to Sam who was right in front of her.
“Patience,” Purdue said back, furiously puffing from the exertion of the tiny steps he had to take up.
“Whoa! STOP!” Sam shouted, and Nina and Purdue halted on their respective steps.
“What?” she asked.
“Jesus, I almost stepped on this!” Sam said, pointing just ahead of him. Only a few steps from the top of the thirty-five-meter-high winding stairs, several steps had rusted away. Of the steps ahead, seven were rotted away by corrosion. Only one step in the middle of the lot was proper enough to step on and then the top three were still sturdy.
“I would have fallen several stories, if I was not so unfit,” he admitted, grateful that his winded state forced him to stop for a moment. “I would not have seen this death trap if I kept on!”
“Thank God!” Nina sighed. “You would never survive a drop like that.”
“Come, let’s get up there. Sam, just show us which ones as we go,” Purdue suggested. “We’ll come up slowly.”
When they finally made it to the top, the view was spectacular.
“Wow, this was worth the hellish trip up,” Sam remarked, catching his breath with his hands resting on his hips and checking out the panoramic view. His camera dangled from his neck, ready to record the setting and the beauty of Osmussaar.
“This is the home of the white eye,” Purdue smiled, scrutinizing the confined area that could barely hold the giant, decrepit light in its steel caging.
“Up here it is so much warmer from the sunlight, unlike that horrible cold tube below us,” Nina said, dreamily running her fingertips along the glass panels, walking around the whole perimeter of the small chamber.
“Claustrophobic again?” Sam asked.
“Not really. Just don’t like this place. It gives me the creeps. I mean, listen to how the wind whistles through the lighthouse and echoes as if it were a tomb. Everything feels so lonely. So miserable and cold,” she said, still running her fingers over the thick glass as she went. Almost reaching the point again where she had started, she stared out over the majestic coastline of limestone rocks and the fishing boats that looked miniscule from up here.
Suddenly something moved in the bushes to the northwest and caught Nina’s eye. She stopped, her hand still open against the glass. Through her fingers she saw a man emerging from the hedges and bushes, looking up at the lighthouse. He appeared to be looking right at her.
“Purdue, hurry up, please. Find whatever you think can help us locate the next site and let’s get out of here,” she said firmly, keeping a keen eye on the man below in the surrounding field. He was freakishly large and had qualities resembling a Neanderthal. Instantly Nina thought of the yeti men she had encountered. They looked much the same as the inquisitive stranger who had not moved an inch since he came out to look at her.
“What exactly are we looking for, Purdue?” Sam asked as he scanned the place for anything peculiar or out of place.
“The inscription said ‘where the white eye looks,’ so I suppose, if we are correct, that the direction of the light the last time it was used, would point us to something,” Purdue answered, examining the landmasses and beacons he saw through the vantage point in front of the light. “I must concede, I see nothing in particular that can help us, unless I am missing something.”
The bulb of the giant light faced south, toward the interior of the island, but there was nothing significant. Both of them looked down from the glass to survey the stretch of island that spanned just over approximately one mile from there. The silent, pallid buildings below were of no substance to their search, as far they could see. Purdue and Sam recognized no specific pattern or signs from the desolate little structures nestled in the tall grasses and bushes.